The Adventures of Author Tristan Higbee

Climbing the South Spur on Mt. Adams, Washington

Mt. Adams is now one of my favorite mountains. It’s a beautiful mountain with a really fun, easy, interesting, beautiful route up it. It’s the second tallest mountain in the state after Mt. Rainier, which I climbed a few summers ago.

I left my sister’s place in Seattle and drove straight to Mt. Adams. Here are my notes from the drive:

2:45 Made it to the Mt. Adams trailhead (South Spur/South Ridge route)

I camped that night at the trailhead and then woke up early for the climb. Here are my notes from the climb:

Here are my times and notes from the climb:

5:45 – Woke up (I had set my alarm for 3:00 but slept through it. Oops.)

6:15 – Started hiking (Trailhead elevation: 5,600′)

7:15 – 6970′, 2.41 miles (1 hour of hiking)

8:15 – 8717′, 3.62 miles (2 hours of hiking)

8:50 – The real climbing begins on the main snow slope – 9604′

9:15 – 10301′, 4.62 miles (3 hours of hiking)

9:57 – At the top of the steep slope and on the false summit – 11462′, 5.04 miles

10:15 – 11727′, 5.48 miles

10:35 – SUMMIT – 12,260′, 5.78 miles

I passed 23 people on my way up the mountain and was passed by no one. It was surprisingly cold and windy on top. Luckily, you could get on one side of the summit ridge and be out of the wind for the most part. I had the summit all to myself for about 10 minutes before the next people came up. The views of Mt. Saint Helens, Mt. Hood, and Mt. Rainier were all awesome.

I left the top at 11:05 and glissaded (slid down my butt on the snow) down a couple thousand vertical feet to the Lunch Counter (reached at 12:00). I lost the trail at one point (I never pay much attention to where I’m going on the way down…) and lost about half an hour. I made it back to the trailhead by 2:05.

Elevation gain: ~6680′

Ascent time: 4 hrs 20 minutes

Mt. Adams from the south

Mt. Saint Helens

Looking up at the meat and potatoes of the climb from somewhere near the Lunch Counter

Looking down from the meat and potatoes from probably around 10,000 or 10,500 feet

Looking up at the summit from the false summit

Me on top with Rainier in the background

In the glissade groove. I felt like I was bobsledding.

People use the stones on the mountain to build up walls to protect them from wind while camping

Drying out my gear back at camp.

There are two videos below. The first is a panorama from the summit. The second is me glissading. Click here if you can’t see the videos.